As ever, our concerns will be: (1) how do specific proposals impact on the most poorest and most vulnerable in society? (2) how is wealth being shared or accumulated, by whom and to what ends? (3) how is sustainability and environment factored economically? (4) what is being done about tax evasion and avoidance? (5) what is being done to stimulate positive, green growth, jobs and pro-social enterprise? (6) how are fiscal, monetary and other levers being used and to what ends?

Budgets, Ekklesia believes, are moral documents. They are not just about abstract figures. They indicate the priorities and vision (or lack of it) of a society and the choices it - and especially its elected leaders - wishes to make.

The larger issues about how we understand money, its nature, creation and use are raised well in political economist Ann Pettifor's digital book, Just Money: How society can break the despotic power of finance, which is introduced here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/19919

In related work, Ekklesia is continuing to look at church investments / financial policies and has co-published the churches' São Paulo Statement: International Financial Transformation for the Economy of Life.